Citation

Uguccioni G, Pallanca O, Golmard JL, Leu-Semenescu S, Arnulf I. J. Sleep Res. 2014; 24(2): 197-205.

Affiliation

Sleep Disorder Unit, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, APHP, Paris, France; Brain Research Institute (CRICM-UPMC-Paris6; Inserm UMR_S 975; CNRS UMR 7225), Paris, France; Sorbonne Universites, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Paris, France.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, European Sleep Research Society, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/jsr.12219

PMID

25212397

Abstract

In order to evaluate verbal memory consolidation during sleep in subjects experiencing sleepwalking or sleep terror, 19 patients experiencing sleepwalking/sleep terror and 19 controls performed two verbal memory tasks (16-word list from the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test, and a 220- and 263-word modified story recall test) in the evening, followed by nocturnal video polysomnography (n = 29) and morning recall (night-time consolidation after 14 h, n = 38). The following morning, they were given a daytime learning task using the modified story recall test in reverse order, followed by an evening recall test after 9 h of wakefulness (daytime consolidation, n = 38). The patients experiencing sleepwalking/sleep terror exhibited more frequent awakenings during slow-wave sleep and longer wakefulness after sleep onset than the controls. Despite this reduction in sleep quality among sleepwalking/sleep terror patients, they improved their scores on the verbal tests the morning after sleep compared with the previous evening (+16 ± 33%) equally well as the controls (+2 ± 13%). The performance of both groups worsened during the daytime in the absence of sleep (-16 ± 15% for the sleepwalking/sleep terror group and -14 ± 11% for the control group). There was no significant correlation between the rate of memory consolidation and any of the sleep measures. Seven patients experiencing sleepwalking also sleep-talked during slow-wave sleep, but their sentences were unrelated to the tests or the list of words learned during the evening. In conclusion, the alteration of slow-wave sleep during sleepwalking/sleep terror does not noticeably impact on sleep-related verbal memory consolidation.

Language: en